eurosong_contestfandomcom-20200223-history
Amir Haddad
|country = |year = 2016 |song = J’ai cherché |semi = -- |SFPoints = -- |position = 6th |points = 257 }} Amir Haddad ''' (born '''Laurent Amir Khlifa Khedider Haddad), mostly known professionally as Amir, is a French-Israeli singer and songwriter born in Paris of Tunisian and Spanish-Moroccan Jewish parents. He emigrated to Israel at the age of 8 and in 2006 competed in the fourth season of Kokhav Nolad, the Israeli equivalent to the Idol franchise - the only candidate to sing French-language songs in the audition phase. He was eliminated in the fourth round of competition. After completing his obligatory service in the military, he released his debut album Vayehi in 2011. He graduated from university in 2012 with a degree in dentistry. It was in 2008 when performing alongside Patrick Bruel at a concert in Israel in front of about 11,000 people that started to fuel Amir's dream to pursue a career in music. In 2014, Amir returned to France to compete in the third season of the French version of The Voice, joining Team Jenifer after all four coaches turned their chairs for him during his blind audition. His performances during the season gained much praise from the coaches and earned him a massive fanbase. He reached the final, finishing in third place to eventual winner Kendji Girac. On 29 February 2016, France 2 announced that Amir would represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm with the song J’ai cherché. He finished in 6th place in the final, giving France its best finish in 14 years and its best-scoring entry to date, breaking a 40-year points record. His first French-language album Au coeur de moi was released on April 29, 2016. It went gold in France within 2 months of its release and spawned several hit singles. The album has since gone triple platinum in France, and was also certified gold in Switzerland and Belgium. Post-Eurovision Since Amir's success in Eurovision, participated in the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup pre-show concert in Paris in front of over 80,000 spectators, won the 2016 MTV Europe Award for Best French Act, 2016 NRJ Music Awards for French Breakthrough of the Year and French Song of the Year ("J'ai cherché"), and embarked on a national tour with stops in Belgium and Switzerland among other TV and music-related appearances. He joined Stéphane Bern and Marianne James as a commentator for France 2 at the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kiev. That same year, he joined the French charity troupe Les Enfoirés. Amir's second French-language album Addictions was released on October 27, 2017, which has since gone triple platinum in France and debuted at #3 on the French album chart. On November 5, he won his second consecutive NRJ Music Award for French Song of the Year with "On dirait" (for which he also won the 2017 Chanson de l'Année prize), and a week later he won the 2017 MTV Europe Music Award for Best French Act for the second straight year. He also served as a judge for Destination Eurovision 2018, France's national final for the 2018 contest in Lisbon. In 2019, he won his second Chanson de l'Année award for the song "Longtemps". He took a break from music after several successful tours over three years. He co-wrote France's 2020 entry The Best In Me alongside 2020 French representative Tom Leeb and 2019 Swedish representative John Lundvik. Trivia *Amir is a self-professed "tech geek". He is always in search of the latest gadgets and is very active on social media. *He is self-taught on the guitar. *During the lead-up to the contest, he built friendships with many of the other contestants, especially Barei and Poli Genova. *According to his Eurovision profile, he deals with stress by texting, tweeting, or making long phone calls. *One of his favorite bands is American group OneRepublic. He collaborated with them on a bilingual verision of their song "No Vacancy", which was released worldwide on 26 May 2017. *France 2 posted videos of Amir performing acoustic covers of past Eurovision songs on their Facebook page including Euphoria, Golden Boy and Heroes. *He was born with 50% hearing loss and can only hear from his left side, which is why he often only wears an in-ear monitor in his left ear when he performs live. Category:Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Category:France Category:21st Century Eurovision Category:Big Five